(S) From the front door of the Butchers Arms pub, turn left and follow the no-through road signposted to Sheepscombe Far End. After 1⁄2 mile, continue between the gateposts into Workman’s Wood.
(1) When the track forks, take the lower (right-hand) branch. Bear right when the other track rejoins from the left, then swing right with views down the valley.
Bear left to a building and a pond beyond. Continue along the main track to the left of the pond. Beyond a shelter (on your left) continue up the valley, ignoring any turnings and passing a small quarry face on your left. Eventually, leave the wood through a gate and follow a track across the field ahead.
(2) Bear right through the gate between two houses. Turn right down the road (B4070), then at Foston’s Ash cross over and walk to the right of the pub, passing the swings to reach the end of the car park. Follow the footpath beyond, along a field edge.
(3) At the end of the field, go through a gap in the hedge and follow a path half-right across the next field to a dip in the land and into the wood beyond. Walk quite steeply down the wooded side-valley to a footbridge over the stream.
On meeting the main path beyond, turn right down the valley. Follow the track as it bends left and through a gate to the left of a ruined building. Turn right and walk behind the building to a further hand-gate. Shortly afterwards a track joins from the right; continue down the valley alongside the stream, ignoring any side-tracks.
(4) When you reach a narrow lake, at the meeting point of five tracks, leave the stream and follow the waymarked bridleway that leads obliquely up through the trees to your left. After passing an area of new planting towards the top of the bank, exit the wood and turn left, ignoring the path ahead along the wall.
Climb to a dry-stone wall and follow it to the right. Ignore an area of hard standing on the left, continuing along the field edge to a bridleway sign and gate where you join the road.
(5) Turn right and walk down into Caudle Green. Follow the lane across the village green, past the postbox and out of the village. Ignore a narrow lane off to the left. At the bottom of the valley, turn right to cross the stream, and take the footpath signposted between the roads to Syde (left) and Winstone and Miserden (right).
(6) The path leads through coppiced woodland parallel to a stream on the left, and then passes through a more open area. Ignore a waymarked path on the left, continuing on the more obvious path up the wooded slope to a waymark post in the corner of the field. Follow the field edge ahead of you to the top of the hill and in the corner of the field, turn left.
(7) On meeting a farm track, turn right past Pound Cottage to the metalled road on the edge of Winstone village. Turn left and walk into the village centre, passing Townsend Farm and Winstone Baptist Chapel on your right.
At a junction, turn right (School Hill) and follow it to a triangular junction. Turn right (signposted “To the Church”) and follow the lane past a series of farms and houses to the church, ignoring a footpath over a slab on the right just beyond Croft Farm.
(8) Take a footpath on the right at the bend in the lane below the church, and follow the walled grassy track out into open fields. Walk diagonally (South-East) across the field aiming for a gap in the far hedge approximately coinciding with the point where the overhead cables cross.
Continue in a similar direction towards the trees surrounding Rectory Farm. After a stile, aim to the left of the trees (negotiating temporary fencing if necessary) and cross the farm drive above the entrance. Cross the stile opposite and bear half-left to a gateway in the wall. The path continues in the same direction (temporary fencing permitting) to a stone slab stile into a road.
(9) Cross the road and go over the stile opposite. Join and follow a tractor track, bending left then right so you end up walking parallel to the A417. In the corner of the last field, go through a gate and descend to a public road.
Turn left (ignoring the slip road onto the A417) and pass under the twin bridges leading below the dual carriageway.
(10) Follow the road round to the right and carry straight on along a short no-through road beyond the southbound slip road. At the end of the metalled road, turn left and follow a hedged green lane downhill. This track runs along the right-hand side of a wood and then crosses the stream at a ford.
(11) Climb the hill beyond, following the track along the wood edge. Beyond the woodland, the track levels off and follows field edges before passing to the right of a roughly triangular copse and joining Burcombe Lane. Follow the lane past houses (and the entrances to Burcombe, Hobbs Lane and Woodland View on the left) to a junction with a phone box and bus stop.
(12) Turn left (North), ignoring minor turnings to left and right, then at the end of the village turn right (North-East), passing under pylons and then past a house on the left. Follow the road for half a mile, passing through woodland and descending to the main road (A435). Cross over and turn right then left, signposted to “Rendcomb & College”.
(13) Walk down the road to cross the River Churn, then continue up to Rendcomb village, ignoring a drive on the right and passing under an ornamental bridge. Turn right at the entrance to Rendcomb College and walk past the French Renaissance-style stables. Beyond the post office and phone-box, turn right, signposted to Chedworth.
(14) Opposite the last house on the left, take a footpath on the right. This leads along a fence then follows a mature hedgerow before descending towards the bottom of the valley at the far end of the field. Beyond a kissing gate, cross a driveway onto a path which bears left into woodland.
(15) Follow the path along the bottom edge of the wood, crossing a footbridge, until a kissing gate on the right leads out into a riverside field. Turn left and walk below the woodland edge to a step stile. Turn right towards a bridge, but then immediately left through the trees to a gate into fields (ignore paths on the left).
(16) Follow the path along the bottom of the bank with the river close on your right. Ignore a footbridge and go through a metal gate. The path departs from the river slightly to reach a field gate in the wall on the left, ahead of a wooded bank in a bend in the river.
(17) Go through the gate and bear right, up the hill, to pass behind the wood. Continue above the wood to a gate, which leads into a grassy driveway. On reaching the main street in North Cerney, turn right and walk downhill to the Bathurst Arms. (E)
